What do you guys think of Kendrick’s new album? I feel like he’s sometimes a little overrated and that might be happening here with all the overwhelming positive reviews. I love everything he’s done but I don’t think I like this as much as his last 3 albums.

Love Kendrick. Still forming an opinion on this album. Obviously it’s good…but so far, I think its his weakest album of his big 3. I thought he was a slam-dunk win for AOTY, but now I’m not sure. That being said, people seem to be loving it. It’s just striking me as his most conventional production-wise. Great raps, but musically it’s not impressing me like the last 2 albums.

I’ve just listened it and I’m very pleased. It’s much less iconic and slightly inferior to TPAB, yet it might be my favourite. It’s obviously good in terms of lyrics and beats, but mostly I love the fact that it’s very cohesive and coherent. It’s like a path within himself that he invites us to take, and it feels linear without making the listener losing interest.
Speaking of the Grammys, it will obviously overshadow A Tribe Called Quest’s last album, and I don’t think it’s possible to have two hip hop albums in AOTY. I’m deeply convinced that We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service is the only masterpiece of the two, but I can’t really complain to see a true artist like Kendrick Lamar getting all the recognition he deserves.
I’ll listen to DAMN. many other times, for now I’ll give it 8+/10.

It may not be better than To Pimp a Butterfly, but I think I like it better than Good kid, M.A.A.D city. It’s slightly less ambitious than those two, which appeals to fans of the more straight-forward Section.80 like me who missed that Kendrick

DAMN. doesn’t reach the heights of TPAB, but its a lot more easy to digest for the the public. The songs fit within the rhythmic radio formula (one of them even sounds like a Drake song). It also has very few features, which is a big thing for AOTY (Morning Phase, 1989 and 25 had no features). Its lead single was also very successful on the charts. If he can get radio, sales and streaming on his side, he could be in a better position for AOTY this time around than TPAB.

I love the album. I agree that after first listen it didn’t seem better than tpab but when I first heard gkmc I didn’t think it was better than section.80 so I just think his albums grow on you. Humble is turning out to be his biggest hit yet and he is getting great reviews.

TPAB is one of the best albums of all time so there shouldn’t be a comparison. Damn is probably the worst of Kendrick’s albums but it’s still so far above his mainstream competition (i.e. Cole/Drake/Big Sean etc). The production is again ridiculously inventive. I do think that the album is being slightly overhyped though, as evidenced by the metacritic score (98 last time I checked).

So far it’s somehow doing better critically than TPAB (although the number of reviews need to pick up before we can cement that). First listen through made me question why, but I’m starting to get it with these last two or three.

It’s obviously not as massive in its musical or thematic scope as TPAB, but honestly, it might be just as well-compacted and laid-out narratively, if not more so. As a journey of reflection and self-discovery, it’s probably the best album I’ve ever heard. And say what you will about the more radio-friendly sound, that almost makes it more impressive that he made it more accessible while retaining his expected level of thematic depth and lyrical brilliance. After this year’s Grammys, I had a feeling Kendrick would win the next time he got nominated for AOTY, no matter how his next album stacked up to TPAB. Now, I think he’ll deserve it just as much as he did that year.

Standouts for me are “DNA.”, “ELEMENT.”, “XXX.”, “DUCKWORTH.”, “FEAR.”, “LOYALTY.” and obviously “HUMBLE.” (the latter two are getting nominated for sure)